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Bill
William "Bill" Overbeck is one of the four playable Survivors in Left 4 Dead. He is a Vietnam veteran who served in the US Army 1st Special Forces Group, and is also noticeably the oldest of the group. In official media, he is usually seen wielding the Assault Rifle, probably to complement his back story. He often has a lit cigarette in his mouth that only extinguishes when he dies. Bill is killed prior to the events of Left 4 Dead 2's The Passing during the (canonical) events of The Sacrifice. In the latter he sacrificed himself to raise the bridge for the other three Survivors. According to The Sacrifice comic, Bill died after being attacked by multiple Tanks when he went down to reactivate the lift bridge at the finale so the rest of his team of Survivors may be safe from the oncoming horde. Bill's facial features are portrayed by Bernard Fouquet and he is voiced by Jim French. Official Description Background Bill served two tours of duty in the Vietnam War. U.S. Special Forces involvement in the war that ended in 1972. Sometime during the war he had shrapnel bore into his knee causing permanent damage. Two days after the first infection, Bill was in a veterans hospital waiting for an operation, possibly relating to his knee injury. When a resident staff attempting to make small talk in regards to Bill's missing family along with his smoking habits, Bill tells him to go practice somewhere else. As he undergoes anesthesia and slowly blacks out for the surgery, one of the nurses becomes an Infected and kills the operation room staff. Bill staves off his oncoming unconsciousness through sheer force of will as he simultaneously fights off the Infected nurse, disabling her momentarily. Finding a bonesaw and a knife to defend himself with, Bill fights the sudden rise of Infected outside the hospital to make it back home, where he dresses up in his old military clothing which had been put away for safekeeping. Equipping himself with his trusty assault rifle, Bill heads outside to fight the Infected on his own. Relationships with other Survivors Out of the other three Survivors, Bill stands out most prominently as the leader of the group. * Francis: Bill appears to have some sort of rivalry with Francis, though the precise reason for this is unknown. It's possible that Bill and Francis knew each other prior to the outbreak, and Francis's in-comic comment about knowing Bill the past few weeks suggests this too. Another cause could be Francis's supposed hatred of the military (since Bill was once a soldier), instinctive alpha-male rivalry, or simply Francis's gruff personality rubs Bill the wrong way. Alternatively, what is said could simply be friendly teasing between the two. In the Sacrifice comic, while Bill still doesn't particularly get along with Francis, he considers Francis as 'his own', and will desert any newcomer if they have a chance of endangering his group. Francis, despite all his insults, knows Bill well enough to know even when Bill doesn't do the right thing, he does it for the right reasons. When Bill leaves the group to sacrifice himself and does not return, Francis is the first to attempt to go down to bring him back, but is stopped by Zoey as the reality of the situation sinks in, and they mourn for his death. In The Passing, Francis is sometimes not happy that they have to lower the bridge, since it was due to Bill's efforts that it was raised in the first placedlc1_c6m1_initialmeeting32.wavdlc1_c6m3_finalechat45.wav. Also, Francis may be heard saying that they lost a good man getting the bridge up, showing he may secretly respect Bill. * Louis: As far as the Survivors' relationships go, Louis and Bill do not have much evidence hinting towards each other's dispositions. Bill will, however, seem genuinely upset to see Louis die. ("Louis didn't make it... Agh, Christ!") Oddly enough, this is in contrast to how unsympathetic Bill can be when Louis is incapacitated outside of the safe room. ("How well do you really know Louis?") However, he'll usually follow this by saying he was joking. In the Sacrifice comic, Bill is able to see when Louis is planning something (such as ramming a jeep leaking gasoline into a Tank) and react according, and shows surprise at his intuitive thinking. Similar to how he treats Francis, Bill prioritizes the safety of Louis as one of his group above others, even if it means their deaths, Bill also told Louis once they make him to the Keys he'll make him a fishing pro. In The Passing, Louis is sad that Bill is gone, but is resolved more than ever to stay with Francis and Zoey. When killing a Tank, Louis may proclaim the kill in Bill's name for revengedlc1_killfinaltank01. * Zoey: The relationship between Bill and Zoey is fairly strong. Bill is openly sorrowful when Zoey is killed. ("Aghh...not [tearing up] Zoey.") When Zoey is incapacitated on the other side of the safe room, Bill verbally refuses to leave her behind. ("Zoey can't stay out there! We have to help her." and "I can't leave Zoey out there!"). Bill seems to view her as a daughter or granddaughter figure. This is strengthened in part one of "The Sacrifice" comic as Zoey is seen resting closest to Bill on the evacuation vehicle, and in that he mentions her name first when he's reflecting on sacrificing himself to save the others. To further illustrate this, he attacks a soldier who hits Zoey with his gun when demanding she show the doctor her wound, and when she reflects on how her parents died, she hugs Bill, finding comfort in his arms. Their relationship is strained deeply in The Sacrifice comic when he refuses to stop the train to allow the other newer Survivors onboard due to his need to protect his group, of which Zoey is a part of. Later on, Bill sacrifices himself to save the other Survivors, leaving Zoey with sadness, as they never really made up prior to their separation. She takes up Bill's conviction to "look after their own" in his place. During his initial jump down the bridge, Bill mentally vents his anger at the infected, thinking how everytime he thinks "she's" safe and he can rest, they're there again like a bad nightmare. "She" in this case most likely refers to Zoey. In The Passing, if Louis and Francis joke about Bill, Zoey may look away or appear very sad, hinting that she is the one who misses him the most. Unfortunately Bill did not live long enough to meet the Survivors of Left 4 Dead 2. However Francis and Louis joke that Bill would probably have shot Nick within a very short time frame due to the latter's disagreeable personality. Rochelle shows understanding and sympathy to Bill's death in certain lines to the original Survivors. Both Coach and Nick have multiple lines regarding the loss of Bill if his death is mentioned. Quotes and Captions See: Bill/Quotes and Captions Notes * Jim French, who voices Bill in Left 4 Dead, also voiced Father Grigori from Half-Life 2 and The Fisherman from Half-Life 2 Lost Coast. * Originally Bill was the "narrator" in the cut intros of the campaigns. * Bill is always seen smoking a cigarette. Even when he is dead, it manages to stay in his mouth. In The Passing, however, his cigarette is missing from his corpse. When he dies in-game, it is no longer lit; the only exception is during the opening scene, where he doesn't light the cigarette until the end. * Bill will occasionally comment with a rebellious "What a load of horseshit," to 'No Smoking' signs that the Survivors encounter during the campaigns, perhaps as a joke to himself. * Bill believes that the Survivors may become infected at any second. In the earlier versions, seen in cut lines, he was close to being paranoid about the fact they may be infected, while the virus is mutating in their bodies. Currently, the closest Bill comes to mentioning anything about themselves regarding the Infection is in No Mercy, where one of his possible lines involves the uncomfortable topic of dealing with him in the event he starts to turn.Generic33.wav * Bill is currently the only Survivor with a confirmed last name. "Overbeck" can be found on his military jacket, and he was addressed as "Mr. Overbeck" in The Sacrifice comic. * Bill's original issue combat jacket bears no badges of rank (or suggestion that they might once have been sewn on and then removed). This suggests that, as a enlisted man, Bill did not achieve even the most basic step up in promotion. Such a situation would be most unusual for a long-service soldier during the Vietnam War period, especially one with time served in the Special Forces. It may just be a developer oversight. * When either using a third-person mod or cheat (only for computer), or viewing Bill from another character's point of view, one can see that Bill has a severe limp when he is at critical health. The other Survivors also stagger, but this is further proof that he injured his right leg in his line of work at some point. * Pre-orders for Left 4 Dead 2 would give Team Fortress 2 owners Bill's Hat as a unique, in-game item. It appears as a brown or dark blue beret (its subtitle is "Level 10 Veteran's Beret). The back-story behind this is that Bill's hat fell off a table and into another dimension, landing in the Team Fortress 2 universe. * It is hinted that Bill may have had previous contact with the Witch because of the slashes in the back of his jacket. Furthermore, in the Left 4 Dead intro, he tells Zoey to turn off her flashlight when he notices the crying is coming from a Witch, however, this may be because he saw her claws or her general inhuman appearance. * If one uses transformation console commands on Bill to turn him into a different Survivor, he/she would see that Bill possess a unique facial animation. The right side of his mouth tends to be raised, almost as if he is smiling (probably due to his cigarette) and his brows are constantly lowered. * Bill could possibly have been a resident of the city of Fairfield before the Infection, judging by his knowledge of the city and certain places, such as the Red Line Subway and Mercy Hospital. * Bill is the only main Survivor to canonically die within the story so far. * If one were to reverse the Midnight Riders song "Save Me Some Sugar" from 2:08 - 2:14, they would find that what sounded like gibberish before is actually the lead singer chanting "Bill is dead", a possible reference to the "Paul is dead" hoax of the 60's. * Bill has a model for his death position in The Passing's pak01_dir.vpk, the textures and model files also exist in the pak02_dir.vpk in the default Left 4 Dead 2's left4dead2 folder, with the only difference is that it has his animations and model files with "survivor_namvet" properly spelled. This may have been left in for the community to use for modding purposes or for future DLCs like The Sacrifice. * Bill was voted the third most popular Survivor in Left 4 Dead 2's week 21 poll. * Valve created an achievement for Bill in The Sacrifice where players are awarded the Kill Bill achievement if Bill performs The Sacrifice. This is a nod to Bill dying in the storyline. This is the only achievement in either Left 4 Dead game where it is tied to a specific character. The achievement name is also a reference to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill series. * Bill smokes Romero brand cigarettes, as seen in The Sacrifice trailer. This is a nod to director George A. Romero. * Bill appears as "namvet" in the game program. He has 26 facial expressions, the highest of any original Survivor. 19 of these are unique to his character shock, angry battle, hurt, fear 1-2-3, angry 1, shock dialogue, hurt dialogue, hurt 2 dialogue, happy dialogue, evil smile, eh [sic, smile 2, awe 1, awe 2, sarcastic 1, sarcastic 2]. He shares anger 3, gruff dialogue with Francis; happy with Zoey; and concerned dialogue and optimistic dialogue with Louis and Francis. None of his facial expressions are shared exclusively with Louis. * If a Survivor other than Bill is being sacrificed in the finale of The Sacrifice, Bill exclaims that it wasn't supposed to be him/her. This could either be taken as Bill's character breaking a fourth wall or Bill expressing his regret that as the oldest and possibly most infirm (based on his need for non-elective surgery) he should have sacrificed himself in order to secure a future for a member of the younger generation. * In The Sacrifice, Bill will occasionally remark (with no modicum of irony), "You know who runs around filling things up with gas? Idiots," as the L4D2 Survivors are obligated to do just that in the finales for Dead Center and The Passing. Bill's motivation to procure a sailboat may stem from foresight, as gas has/will become a commodity as time goes on. Gallery File:Bills.jpg|Head shot of Bill. File:Picture1.jpg|Concept art of beta Bill. File:Bill-survivors-alley-1920-2.jpg|Bill's appearance during initial game development. File:Bill deceased.jpg|Bill's final resting place, as seen in the final chapter of The Passing File:Bernard 005.JPG|Bill's face model, Bernard Fouquet. jim_french.jpg|Jim French, Bill's voice actor. File:BillComicDead.jpg|Bill as he appears in the first few panels of the Sacrifice comic. Bill.JPG|Bill as seen in The Sacrifice trailer. sacrifce 2.JPG|Bill about to fight three Tanks in the Sacrifice trailer. References Category:The Survivors Category:Left 4 Dead